Uzbekistan

The Issue of Fundamentalism

In light of the role that Islam has played throughout Uzbekistan's
history, many observers expected that Islamic fundamentalism would gain a
strong hold after independence brought the end of the Soviet Union's
official atheism. The expectation was that an Islamic country long denied
freedom of religious practice would undergo a very rapid increase in the
expression of its dominant faith. President Karimov has justified
authoritarian controls over the populations of his and other Central Asian
countries by the threat of upheavals and instability caused by growing
Islamic political movements, and other Central Asian leaders also have
cited this danger.

In the early 1990s, however, Uzbekistan did not witness a surge of
Islamic fundamentalism as much as a search to recapture a history and
culture with which few Uzbeks were familiar. To be sure, Uzbekistan is
witnessing a vast increase in religious teaching and interest in Islam.
Since 1991, hundreds of mosques and religious schools have been built or
restored and reopened. And some of the Islamic groups and parties that
have emerged might give leaders pause.